Jean Byron

Byron was born in Paducah, Kentucky, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Burkhart.{{cite news |title=Ex-Louisvillian Imogene Burkhart Keeping Busy as Jean Byron on TV |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/22815126/jean_byron/ |work=The Courier-Journal |date=October 2, 1955 |location=Kentucky, Louisville |page=105|via = Newspapers.com|access-date = August 14, 2018}} {{Open access}} Her family moved to Louisville when she was still quite young, and then to California when she was 19 during World War II.{{Citation needed |date=February 2023}}

As a teenager, Byron tap danced and performed comedy. In the summer of 1939, she sang with a production company at the Iroquois Amphitheater in Louisville.

Byron sang on radio stations WGRC and WHAS, both in Louisville. In 1939, she was one of two winners of the regional Gateway to Hollywood competition in Louisville, which enabled her to go to Hollywood to compete at the program's next level.{{cite news |title=2 Receive Hollywood Contracts For Screen-Radio Competition |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/22817065/the_courierjournal/ |work=The Courier-Journal |date=September 16, 1939 |location=Kentucky, Louisville |page=22|via = Newspapers.com|access-date = August 14, 2018}} {{Open access}} Byron sang on alternate days on Kentucky Karnival, a program that originated at WGRC beginning on August 30, 1943, and was distributed nationally via the Mutual Broadcasting System.{{cite news |last1=Creason |first1=Joe |title=Lone Ranger Turns Gunman? Say Not So |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/22845779/the_courierjournal/ |work=The Courier-Journal |date=August 30, 1943 |location=Kentucky, Louisville |page=15|via = Newspapers.com|access-date = August 15, 2018}} {{Open access}}

She also sang with Tommy Dorsey's band, followed by a stint with Jan Savitt's group.{{cite news |title=Burkhart Wins Feminine Lead |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/22846844/hartford_courant/ |work=Hartford Courant |date=August 10, 1952 |location=Connecticut, Hartford |page=62|via = Newspapers.com|access-date = August 15, 2018}} {{Open access}} She then studied drama from 1947 to 1950, followed by a run with the Players Ring,{{cite news |last1=Witbeck |first1=Charles |title=Actress Gets Jobs By Being Ladylike |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/22847070/asbury_park_press/ |work=Asbury Park Press |date=July 30, 1962 |location=New Jersey, Asbury Park |page=9|via = Newspapers.com|access-date = August 15, 2018}} {{Open access}} but offered the performers needed exposure. There, in a play titled Merrily We Roll Along, she came to the attention of Harry Sauber, talent adviser for Sam Katzman. She was asked to read from the script and imitate a British accent, which she did. She got her union card then and there. When asked her name, she replied Imogene Burkhart. Katzman rejected that name, so she volunteered the stage name, Jean Byron, which she had already been using and which the Columbia Pictures brass found more palatable.{{cite web | url=http://www.geostan.ca/voodoo.html | title=Voodoo Tiger }}{{Unreliable source?|date=August 2018}}

Byron's first film was Voodoo Tiger (1952).{{cite news |title=Paducah Star's Stage Name Accepted After Conversation |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/22816829/jean_byron/ |work=The Paducah Sun |date=July 17, 1961 |location=Kentucky, Paducah |page=43|via = Newspapers.com|access-date = August 14, 2018}} {{Open access}} In the 1950s, Byron appeared in several B-movies, including The Magnetic Monster and Serpent of the Nile, in addition to guest roles on The Millionaire, The Pepsi-Cola Playhouse, Science Fiction Theatre, Fury, Bourbon Street Beat, and The Cheyenne Show. Byron also served as spokeswoman for Revlon and Lux products on NBC's The Rosemary Clooney Show.{{Cite magazine|title=Jean Byron|magazine=Variety|date=7 February 2006|url=https://www.variety.com/article/VR1117937608.html?categoryid=25&cs=1|access-date=9 January 2008|archive-date=22 August 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070822174227/http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117937608.html?categoryid=25&cs=1|url-status=dead}} She played Minnie in the syndicated TV series Mayor of the Town (1954).{{r|etvs|page1=671-672}}

In 1959, Byron landed a semiregular spot on CBS's The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis playing Dr. Imogene Burkhart, her real name.{{cite book|last1=Terrace|first1=Vincent|title=Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010|date=2011|publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers|location=Jefferson, N.C.|isbn=978-0-7864-6477-7|page=267|edition=2nd}} During her time on the show, she was cast in a spinoff pilot about Dobie Gillis' girlfriend, Zelda, where she would have played the girl's mother. However, the pilot was not picked up. In the show's final season, Byron convinced producers to allow her character to discard the plain, repressed appearance she presented, and show a more modern version of a schoolteacher.

The following year, she starred in the short-lived soap opera Full Circle.{{r|etvs|page1=371}} In 1963, she won the role of Natalie Lane on The Patty Duke Show.{{r|etvs|page1=817}} After the series ended in 1966, she continued appearing in guest roles on Batman, Marcus Welby, M.D., Maude, and Hotel. She also was a regular on Pat Paulsen's Half a Comedy Hour (1970).{{r|etvs|page1=816}}

In addition to film and television roles, Byron worked in regional theater. She portrayed Mama Rose in Gypsy and appeared in a production of Guys and Dolls.

Byron was married to actor Michael Ansara{{cite news |title='Honest Gunslinger' Can't Outdraw Anybody |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/22596579/john_lupton/ |work=The Courier-Journal |date=September 26, 1956 |location=Kentucky, Louisville |page=9|via = Newspapers.com|access-date = August 7, 2018}} {{Open access}} from 1955 to 1956. Some sources have it as 1949 to 1956. The couple had no children and Byron never remarried.{{cite web|url=http://www.glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen.com/show/525/Jean+Byron/index.html|title=Jean Byron - The Private Life and Times of Jean Byron. Jean Byron Pictures.|website=www.glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen.com}}

On February 3, 2006, Byron died at the age of 80 in Mobile, Alabama, of complications following hip replacement surgery.

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• {{cite book |last=Parla|first=Paul|author2=Charles P. Mitchell|title=Screen Sirens Scream! Interviews with 20 Actresses from Science Fiction, Horror, Film Noir and Mystery Movies, 1930s to 1960s|chapter=Jean Byron: The Byronic Heroine|pages=21–34|year=2000|publisher=McFarland|location=Jefferson, N.C. and London|isbn=0-7864-0701-8}}

{{Commons category}}

• [http://www.officialpattyduke.com/jeanindex.htm The Official Jean Byron Site]
• {{IMDb name|id=0126395}}
• {{Find a Grave|13254761}}

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Category:American film actresses

Category:American stage actresses

Category:American television actresses

Category:People from Paducah, Kentucky

Category:Actresses from Louisville, Kentucky

Category:1925 births

Category:2006 deaths

Category:20th-century American actresses

Category:21st-century American women